NewsBits for September 26, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Feds Make Arrest in Blaster Internet Worm Case Prosecutors in Seattle said Friday that they had arrested a juvenile for releasing a variant of the Blaster worm that devastated computers worldwide and targeted Microsoft Corp.'s computers. The arrest of the juvenile, whose identity was sealed from the public, was for "intentionally causing damage and attempting to cause damage to protected computers," a federal offense, said John McKay, United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6534-2003Sep26.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/972467.asp http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-09-26-blaster-second-juvey-arrest_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - German police bust child porn ring Police have cracked a huge international child pornography network involving some 26,500 Internet users in 166 countries, German authorities said on Friday. "One of the biggest internationally active networks has been smashed," said Curt Becker, justice minister for the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5082832.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33083.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3142080.stm - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Arrests More Than 1,000 in Crackdown A wide-ranging investigation into child pornography and sexual abuse of children has netted more than 1,000 arrests worldwide since it began in July, authorities said Friday. The crackdown, dubbed "Operation Predator," has resulted in arrests in nearly every state and most major U.S. cities, said Michael J. Garcia, director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Arrests have included U.S. citizens who traveled abroad to have sex with minors, people charged with molesting mentally impaired children and people who smuggled foreign children into the United States to work as prostitutes, Garcia said. About 400 of the arrests were on charges of manufacturing or distributing child pornography on the Internet. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,98420,00.html http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/09/26/child.predator.ring/ http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3515993 - - - - - - - - - - Madison man sentenced for dealing child pornography The sharing of Internet images of nude children engaging in sexual activity has led to a seven-year, six-month prison sentence for a Madison man. Steven Dennis, 34, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Albany after he pleaded guilty to a charge of distribution of child pornography, a felony. According to a press release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Indiana, in August 2002 a witness, not a member of Dennis's family, saw child pornography images on Dennis's home computer. A computer forensic examination revealed images of children engaging in sexual activity with other children and with adults. The U.S. attorney's office described the age of the children as prepubescent. http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleID=14288 - - - - - - - - - - Md. Chess Star 'Not Guilty' In Internet Sex Case A federal court jury found a 32-year-old Maryland chess star not guilty Thursday of using an online relationship to cross state lines in hopes of a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old Alabama girl. An attorney for Alex Sherzer claimed he was led into the relationship by investigators who assumed the girl's persona. Sherzer said he began e-mailing the girl in December after seeing her self-posted Internet profile. http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2512056/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Man charged in sex assault A 36-year-old Milwaukee man was charged Wednesday with luring a 13-year-old boy from Chicago after meeting him over the Internet, and sexually assaulting the youth in a Milwaukee apartment. The complaint says that the boy told a detective that he began chatting with Jones on an Internet dating Web page about three months ago. He said that Jones started chatting about sex and suggested that the boy come to Milwaukee so they could have sex, the complaint says. http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep03/172319.asp - - - - - - - - - - Importuning charge filed against Lima man Lima police have charged another person with soliciting sex from a minor, this time when an officer posed as a 15-year-old boy over the Internet. Craig Darbyshire, 39, was arrested at his Lima home at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Darbyshire allegedly tried to lure a person he thought was a boy to his home with the promise of sex. Officers with the department's PACE unit, who for the past year have been tracking potential sex offenders with a description of a 14-year-old girl online, showed up at the home instead. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030925/NEWS03/30925005 - - - - - - - - - - Former Teacher Pleads Guilty To Purchasing Child Pornography A former teacher agreed to plead guilty to federal charges he purchased a pornographic videotape. Daniel T. Flynn, 38, of Newport Beach, Calif., sent $30 for a half-hour tape to an undercover U.S. postal inspector posing as an Internet smut peddler, prosecutors said. The tape was to have depicted 10- to 13-year-old boys having sex. Flynn allegedly began corresponding with the undercover postal inspector by e-mail in March. A few weeks later, he sent $30 in cash to an Illinois address to procure the pornographic tape. Flynn could face up to 15 years in prison, the prosecutor said. http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2514452/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - York man convicted on child pornography charges A local man has been convicted of possession of sexually explicit materials, including child pornography. Walter Webster, 58, of 2 Deacon Drive, was convicted on 12 counts of the Class D misdemeanor. He was arrested in April after a family friend tipped off police that he had the material on his home computer. http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/09262003/maine/52061.htm - - - - - - - - - - Vigilantes on Internet create trouble for cops Call them Internet vigilantes, prowling the Web in search of adults trying to pick up underage teens. "They got me," said Brian Graves, red-eyed from lack of sleep, his hands shaking from too much coffee. "What I did wasn't right. But what they did is even worse." Early one morning last week, Graves -- a 42 -year-old math teacher at Warren Mott High School -- started a chat over the Internet with someone who said she was a 13-year-old from Ferndale. Before long, the conversation turned to sex. Later, the teen asked for his phone number. He gave it to her. But Graves wasn't really chatting with a teenage girl. On the other end of the line was a 28-year-old Wisconsin man who's part of a Web site called Perverted-Justice.com. Its mission, the site says, is to target "wannabe pedophiles." http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend25_20030925.htm - - - - - - - - - - Internet Attacks Hit Spam Blockers Three Web sites that provide spam blocking lists have shut down as a result of crippling Internet attacks in what experts Thursday said was an escalation in the war between spammers and opponents of unsolicited e-mails. Anti-spam experts said they thought spammers were behind the attacks, although they had no way of proving it. http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5082728.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22374.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-09-26-spam-sites-attacked_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33083.html - - - - - - - - - - New Computer Worm Spreading Yonhap--A new computer worm that spreads through MSN's instant messenger service has been attacking South Korean networks, possibly infecting thousands of terminals,Internet security experts warned Friday. The worm, known as W32/Smess.worm, BadTrans, appears attached to an instant message as a file named ``smb.exe. The worm is a mutant version of another worm called Sinmsn,which was detected last July. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200309/kt2003092616342811820.htm Insecure about Microsoft's security (Series of stories) http://news.com.com/2009-7355_3-5082632.html - - - - - - - - - - Senate panel approves jail for spammers Internet "spammers" who flood e-mail inboxes with deceptive pitches could face up to five years in jail under a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The "Criminal Spam Act of 2003" joins several other anti-spam measures advancing through Congress. Lawmakers had hoped to pass an anti-spam bill into law this year, but that looks increasingly unlikely as both chambers hope to adjourn in little more than a week. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082785.html - - - - - - - - - - Experts question effectiveness of California anti-spam law A new state law that targets unsolicited bulk e-mails peddling everything from low mortgages to Viagra likely stands little chance of reducing the number of junk messages that are clogging Californians' e-mail boxes. Even if the law, supposed to take effect Jan. 1, passes expected court challenges, it's still unlikely to stem the flow of spam, legal and anti-spam experts say. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6868868.htm Spam laws must go further http://www.vnunet.com/Comment/1143893 - - - - - - - - - - Worm ate my homework, Rollins students tell teachers Ever since classes started for students a month ago at Rollins College, a worm has been eating their homework. A virus-like "worm" has infected the small college's computer network, slowing Internet use to a crawl and forcing some students off campus to do research. The school's computer technology team said Thursday that they have cleaned the system by going door to door on campus until 11 p.m. the last few days, looking for computers infected with the virus, known as "W32.Welchia." http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-09-26-rollins-worm-fight_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - BSA offers immunity for copyright confessors The Business Software Alliance is making an offer it hopes companies can't refuse - confess your copyright crimes and we won't prosecute. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is urging any users who believe they may be in breach of software licences or copyright to "throw their hands up" and confess their crimes in exchange for immunity from prosecution. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116689,00.htm Chance is most effective weapon against software piracy http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116706,00.htm U.S. Is Only the Tip of Pirated Music Iceberg http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/technology/26MUSI.html - - - - - - - - - - UK cybercops get forensics code Police have been issued new guidelines for gathering computer crime and electronic forensic evidence that deals with handling PDAs and mobile phones and the use of outside expert witnesses in investigations. The revised Good Practice Guide for Computer-based Electronic Evidence has been compiled by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and the Association of Chief Police Officers with the aim of assisting the seizure of equipment and data and preventing its corruption. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5082815.html - - - - - - - - - - Librarians to P2P critics: Shhh! In a hotly contested lawsuit before a federal appeals court, two peer-to-peer companies are about to gain a vast army of allies: America's librarians. The five major U.S. library associations are planning to file a legal brief Friday siding with Streamcast Networks and Grokster in the California suit, brought by the major record labels and Hollywood studios. The development could complicate the Recording Industry Association of America's efforts to portray file- swapping services as rife with spam and illegal pornography. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082684.html - - - - - - - - - - Network honeypots nab surprises Holes in company networks are being exploited by hackers and fraudulent employees to store and distribute illegal pornography, media files and pirated software. A "honeypot" network set up purely to attract and monitor the level and type of hacking activity on the Internet has found hackers are routinely scanning for misconfigured file transfer protocol (FTP) servers that allow them to upload and store material secretly on company networks for later download. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5082762.html - - - - - - - - - - Security Scout Keeps You One Step Ahead of Viruses The Internet is a battlefield and your computer is under constant bombardment. In such a dangerous digital world, knowledge is your shield, but who has the expertiselet alone the exhaustive resources necessary to scour the Web for pertinent, accurate alerts, patches, and the like? You do, now. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1276860,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Don't gamble on security The author is vice-president of Oracle Government, Education and Healthcare at Oracle Corp. Canada Inc. He is responsible for Oracle's public sector business operations across Canada. The stakes have never been higher for information security, especially information assurance the degree of confidence that citizens can have in the security claims of organizations like the Canadian government. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030926.gtflsep26/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Critic Sacked "It would not surprise me if Microsoft was involved in this," says CCIA president Ed Black. "Companies doing business with them know they are subject to retaliation if they say or do anything that is critical of Microsoft." The lead author of a report that blasts Microsoft has been sacked by the security firm he works for, which does business with the software giant. Daniel Geer, the chief technology officer at @Stake, was among a group of computer-security authorities who compiled the research, released on Wednesday with backing from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22375.html Anti-Microsoft security report mired in politics http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,85441,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Davis Signs Law to Boost TV, Computer Monitor Recycling The nation's most comprehensive law to solve the machines' toxic waste problem could add to the cost of new models next July. Gov. Gray Davis signed the nation's most comprehensive law Thursday to speed recycling of discarded computer monitors and televisions, an estimated 6 million of which are stacked in California offices and homes waiting to be tossed. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-computers26sep26,1,71420.story *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. An intense, 150 hour, instructor lead program that teaches you computer forensics and helps prepare you for the Certified Computer Examiner exam. For more information see; www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu *********************************************************** Search the NewsBits.net Archive at: http://www.newsbits.net/search.html *********************************************************** The source material may be copyrighted and all rights are retained by the original author/publisher. The information is provided to you for non-profit research and educational purposes. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net) should be cited as the source of the information. Copyright 2000-2003, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.